Part of the process for making quilts is a tedious task of cutting out many duplicate sizes of cloth which are later to be sewn together to form an outer surface of a quilt. One of the traditional shapes used in quilts is a triangle made by a method of measuring each side of a square and cutting out the square, followed by the process of diagonally cutting the square of cloth from one top corner to the opposite bottom corner, thereby forming a triangular piece of cloth on each side of the diagonal cut. This is quite often done to several layers of cloth in order to form multiple triangles at one time. But it is still a time consuming process, especially if it must be done over and over in order to produce a large quantity of triangular shaped cloth pieces, as is often the case for quilt makers. It would be desirable to be able to reduce the number of steps for this process if possible.
Most rulers produced for the quilting industry are triangle shaped plexiglass devices with opaque marking thereon, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,346 to Schafer. Many of these rulers are merely measuring devices so that once the points forming the exterior of the shape are produced using these measuring rulers, the shape is then cut in the traditional way.
There are other rulers which have one end which is essentially rectangular in shape and the other end which has something other than a 90.degree. or a 180.degree. edge thereon so that angular cuts can be made along the edge thereof. There are also triangles produced for this purpose made out of clear plexiglas material. A problem with cutting along the edge is that the cutter can move away from the edge and thereby make an undesirable detour, thereby ruining a portion of the cloth being cut. This can also be a safety hazard if the user's hand or finger is in the way.
There are also quilting templates which are merely made in the shape of the pieces of cloth to be cut. Consequently, the user merely moves the cutter around the outside of the template to form the shape desired. These shapes are quite often very small and consequently there is a problem holding the templates with one hand while cutting around it with the cutter with the other hand because the cutter can easily come in contact with the hand holding the template. Furthermore, this is a very awkward procedure which results in many ruined pieces of cloth due to the fact that the template is often inadvertently moved as the user repositions the user's hands to cut from one side of the template to the other.
Consequently there is a need for a ruler for use in quilt making which simplifies the steps of making and cutting pieces of cloth. Furthermore, there is a need for such a device which is safer than the devices of the prior art.